Hi everyone!

Today we’re going to look at how to conjugate the second of the two big ‘tense’ forms: the imperfective (the مضارع). A range of other tense-type constructions are derived from this form, and in the next few posts we’ll look at some of these (the b- prefix, the 3am continuous, the future and the imperative). But for today we’re going to look at the basic form without any prefixes. As we will see, this is most commonly used in subjunctive structures.

As in the last post, I won’t be providing full tables of every single combination of stem type and suffix. Instead, I’ll start by setting out the common imperfective stem shapes and then briefly go over the rules that explain how the different prefixes combine with these shapes.

Stem

We saw in the last post that there are six possible Form I stem shapes in the perfective. In the imperfective, there are ten common possibilities: three sound, three hollow, two defective and two doubled (there are a few extra shapes that I might discuss in a later post, but these cover the vast majority of verbs). As in fuS7a, there are some common associations (i-e perfectives often correspond to a imperfectives, for example) but the imperfective stem generally has to be learnt with its perfective counterpart.

Sound

شرب
shireb
drank

 يشرب
yi-shrab
he drinks
كتب
katab
wrote

يكتب
yi-ktob
he writes

مسك
masak
pick up

 يمسك
yi-msek
he picks up

Hollow

نام
naam
slept

 ينام
y-naam
he sleeps
قال
2aal
said

يقول
y-2uul
he says

دار
daar
turned

 يدير
y-diir
he turns

Defective

دري
diri
found out

 يدرى
yi-dra
he finds out
حكى
7aka
spoke

يحكي
yi-7ki
he speaks

Doubled

دق
da22
knock

 يدق
y-di22
he knocks
تم
tamm
stay

يتم
y-tamm
he stays

How do we conjugate these forms for person and number? As in fuS7a, we add a combination of prefixes and suffixes.

Prefixes

As you can see from the examples above, there are two third person prefixes: yi- and y-. These correspond to two full sets of distinct prefixes. The first set is used when the stem begins with a consonant cluster (note that the vowel is i all the way through, not a):

اشرب
2i-shrab
I drink

 نشرب
ni-shrab
we drink
تشرب
ti-shrab
you (m.) drink

تشربو
ti-shrab-u
you (p.) drink
تشربي
ti-shrab-i
you (f.) drink

يشرب
yi-shrab
he drinks

 يشربو
yi-shrab-u
they drink
تشرب
ti-shrab
she drinks

The second set is used when the stem begins with a single consonant. Consider the following hollow verb example. Note the lack of any visible prefix for ‘I’:

قول
2uul
I say

 نقول
n-2uul
we say
تقول
t-2uul
you (m.) say

تقولو
t-2uul-u
you (p.) say

تقولي
t-2uul-i
you (f.) say
يقول
y-2uul
he says

يقولو
y-2uul-u
they say

تقول
t-2uul
she says

 

Suffixes

The two suffixes (-i and -u) behave straightforwardly. They cause deletion of stem o and i (and not a), sometimes with insertion of a helping vowel, as predicted by the deletion rule:

اكتب
2i-ktob
I drink

 نكتب
ni-ktob
we drink
تكتب
ti-ktob
you (m.) drink

تكتبو
ti-kitb-u
you (p.) drink

تكتبي
ti-kitb-i
you (f.) drink
يكتب
yi-ktob
he drinks

يكتبو
yi-kitb-u
they drink

تكتب
ti-ktob
she drinks

The only other complication is that defective stems (those ending in vowels) drop that vowel when these suffixes are added:

احكي
2i-7ki
I speak

نحكي
ni-7ki
we speak

تحكي
ti-7ki
you (m.) speak

 تحكو
ti-7k-u
you (p.) speak
تحكي
ti-7k-i
you (f.) speak

يحكي
yi-7ki
he speaks

 يحكو
yi-7k-u
they speak
تحكي
ti-7ki
she speaks

That’s all for today!